Allison Chin’s Blog Post

Calling All Fracktivists!

As president of the Sierra Club’s Board of Directors, I want to invite you to attend an event that’s very important to me and to the rest of the Sierra Club: the Stop the Frack Attack rally in Washington, D.C., on July 28.

At the rally, I’ll speak alongside other environmental activists and families whose water and air have been threatened by the dirty practice of fracking. You’ll have a chance to share your stories and concerns with leaders, while marching from the West Lawn of the Capitol through the city. Fracking is a violent process of extracting oil and gas from shale rock formations beneath the surface of the earth. The practice is known to contaminate drinking water and pollute the air. But the rush to frack is sweeping across the country and endangering the health and safety of millions of Americans. Natural gas companies exploit government loopholes, ignore life-saving environmental protections, and disregard the health of entire communities.

As a scientist, I appreciate the importance of thorough research a process the oil and natural gas industries sometimes completely ignore.

The fossil fuel industries have failed to measure adequately the extent of the damage that fracking inflicts on the water, air, climate, environment, and health of families. In fact, a recent report from Earthworks shows that more than 75 percent of New York’s active oil and gas wells go uninspected each year. Careful inspections are crucial since substantial amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, escape from natural gas production into the atmosphere, causing major problems for our climate.

The lack of oversight and public health protections on fracking is alarming. As we move away from coal-fired power plants, we have to ensure that we’re not replacing one fossil fuel, like coal, with another, like oil or natural gas. Instead, we should leapfrog oil and natural gas wherever possible, use what we have as efficiently as possible, and invest in forms of clean energy that we know are safe, such as wind, solar, and geothermal.

As environmental activists, we’ll never be able to match the oil and gas industry’s record-breaking profits. But we are rich in numbers. Many of Sierra Club’s 1.4 million members and supporters come from states where fracking has already taken a heavy toll on the land, air, water, and public health. And fracking is on the move, coming soon to other states unless we can stop it. Fracking is growing at an alarming rate, and, if it hasn’t already, it could reach your backyard next.

That’s why I’m urging all of you to attend the rally against dirty and dangerous fracking or, if you’re unable to come to D.C., lend your support in other ways. Contact your local Sierra Club chapter or group to see if transportation to the rally is available, and consider donating to help organize the National Day of Action on July 28. If you can make it to Washington, D.C., you’ll have the chance to rally to move our country toward a clean energy future free from fracking and drilling that threaten our health, environment, and climate.